Given the pervasiveness of computing devices today, consumers are utilizing devices, such as tablets and mobile phones, for a wide variety of different purposes. A user can make telephone calls, play games, access the internet, send electronic mail or other communications and perform many other functions. Many devices utilize a touch screen to receive input from users of the device. More recently, such devices have begun utilizing gesture input as well, such as where a user makes motions using their hand in front of the device to provide input to the device. The device is usually able to detect and recognize such gestures by using one or more “front-facing” cameras or other sensors embedded in the device. Such gesture input may also be provided to computing devices equipped with large display screens, such as projection screens, large liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors and the like.
Some devices are able to invoke functions by determining a position of a user's hand or finger held in front of the screen. For example, when playing certain games, a user is sometimes allowed to control a cursor on the screen by moving their hand across the screen from one side the other. One difficulty that users may experience when providing such gesture input is that it may get tiresome for a user to move their hand and/or arm from one side of the screen to the other when playing certain games or trying to access various functionality of the device. This can be especially uncomfortable where the detection area for tracking the user's hand is large. Another issue may arise when two or more users try to access the same object displayed on the screen by moving their hands to the same location corresponding to the object, thereby potentially physically bumping into the one another. This can be uncomfortable and inconvenient for users.